2/4/23 card show report: We Bought a Dime Box!

Considering I'm planning on heading to my monthly show tomorrow, tonight's probably a good time to get the cards I brought home from February's posted and recapped!

A few weeks ago I headed to Taylor as I usually do once a month for my favorite show. This time there was a twist, though. Not only did my usual seller have an assortment of dime boxes to peruse, but he had a sign near them offering them up for $25 each! That definitely piqued my interest. I didn't immediately jump on that, though, and I took a while compiling 50 cards from those boxes plus nine from the $2-or-3/$5 selection.

It felt like kind of a waste to head home with just 59 cards for $20, though, so I checked with the seller about the dime box offer. Did he care if I built one dime box out of the six or eight or so that were there? "Do whatever you need to do," he replied. I made sure not to take advantage of that by stuffing the hell out of one of the 3200-count boxes, plus I had no intention of spending an hour-plus filtering out specific cards. Basically I tried to grab handfuls of what looked good from each box, focusing mainly on baseball with some football along for the ride.

In the end I was happy with what I put together, which you can kind of see for yourself in the image above. It worked out to a bit more than two rows of baseball, a bit more than one of football, plus maybe half or slightly more than one row of basketball that I didn't notice. The dude let me fold the 50 dime cards I'd grabbed earlier into that box, so my total was $25 for that plus $15 for the nine two-buck cards I'd grabbed. I returned home to the fun of flipping through that box.

And fun it was! I pulled a few things for myself and lots for others which will be heading out in trade packages. Nothing extremely valuable, not that I expected there to be, but I got my money's worth in useable cards and entertainment value, that's for sure. It's possible I'll list some of what isn't already earmarked for others on TCDb, such as solid groups of recent Topps flagship and Heritage commons, but even if I don't I'm satisfied with what I pulled.

Here's a quick look at my keepers from the dime and $2 boxes:

The baseball content included a new Heritage Cronenworth for me plus a few former Tigers, one of those appearing in a Detroit uniform. Subsequent runs through the box produced two more for my collection: another Scherzer (also as a Met) plus an Indians card of Victor Martinez, a guy I don't go out of my way to collect but whose cards I do keep.

The dime box produced four new basketball items for me in former Wolverines Caris LeVert (x2), Jordan Poole, and Duncan Robinson. '20'-'21 Donruss was the most prominent set from the basketball group and I'm considering putting those up on TCDb if I think they'll generate a few trades. Meanwhile the McGary jersey of course came out of the $2 box and it looks nice with a die-cut design and solid blue swatch. That's my fifth relic and eighth overall hit of McGary.

Switching over to football, a couple transfers were the stars here. My original perusal of the dime boxes while at the show produced the pair of Thomas Rawls (who transferred to Central Michigan) cards, and after I scanned everything I came up with one more base card of the RB not seen here. Ex-Patriot Chase Winovich was a fun find as well on a solid Donruss design. And GOAT DB Charles Woodson adds to his lofty PC total (TCDb says 331) with a select base card from a couple years ago.

The $2 box supplied the rest you see here, including my first two hits of transfer TE Devin Asiasi, who was a great recruit that headed home to UCLA after spending the 2016 season in Ann Arbor. New England took him in the third round in 2020 and he caught one TD pass for them later that year. After a single appearance in 2021 the Bengals picked him up and he got in 12 games this past season, catching a pair of passes.

I believe both autographs you see from 2020 Panini Illusions were together in the $2 box, an exciting find for me because I previously had zero hits of him to my name and I'm making more of an effort to track down certified autographs of any former Michigan Football players I can. The card in the dead center of the scan is the base version of the Rookie Signs insert and is numbered /199 while to its right you see the Black version which is numbered /50. These additions make the single-season Wolverine member #238 of my UM Football PC.

And last up is a solid looking relic of highly ranked WR Nico Collins, who left college having not seen as many targets as he deserved, only to be stuck with the Texans and their abysmal QB options. He's seen here on a rookie year 2021 Panini Playbook jersey card that counts as his fourth relic in my PC and fifth hit overall.

Barring unforeseen circumstances I should be heading back to Taylor tomorrow having opted against going today due to a snowstorm that currently has it looking beautiful outside, if not conducive to safe driving. I don't expect to be bringing another dime box home but you never know! I look forward to seeing if I get any further value and entertainment out of that and in the meantime hopefully I'll have more great items to include in upcoming trade envelopes after tomorrow afternoon.

7/2/21 card show report: dollars, dimes, and quarters, I need them all right now

Nickels? In this economy?! Ain't no nickel boxes around here, but there was plenty to look through when it came to boxes full of dollar, quarter, and dime cards at this month's show in Taylor a few weeks ago. Unlike the past two shows, this time I didn't come home with a box stuffed with absurdly cheap hits and a light wallet, and instead I dropped just $23: $10 worth of dollar items and the rest out of the dime and quarter sections.

It was still reasonably productive, though, not to mention a great way to spend part of my afternoon on the Friday before Independence Day. I achieved my monthly goal of tracking down some trade bait for others, including scoring [pun intended, wait for it] all but one of the non-RCs my Canadian buddy Doug needs for his 2021 Score football set. Everything this time is already earmarked for trade packages (a few of which have already gone out), so I have nothing to show off from that category, but I did bring home two scans' worth of personal pickups:

The baseball group is Tiger-heavy, even if the uniforms pictured don't reflect that. Big Daddy is the lone player in his Detroit duds, representing the team in Donruss' 1992 McDonald's MVP set. Former blog namesake Granderson comes to us from 2012 Bowman Platinum, though as a member of the Yankees. Inge spent part of 2012 with Oakland, then played a 50-game sunset season with the Pirates, as captured on that 2013 Topps Update Blue parallel.

Down the middle we have the three non-Tigers, all of which are from some of my top PCs. I love the photography and design as usual from a Stadium Club release, in this case Larkin's 2020 version. There's no way I'll skip over a new Maddux card, especially if it's in the dime box like that '07 Heritage, even if it's still weird to see him with a team other than the Braves and Cubs. And card #3 here is a double-dip of favorites: Cal Ripken Jr. and Sportflics. The 1987 single you see above is from the "Best in Baseball" subset that goes by league and position, and this one includes Cal along with the late Tony Fernandez of Toronto plus Texas' Scott Fletcher as the top AL SS of 1986.

Getting back to Detroit-related cards, first is a 2020 Heritage League Leaders subset starring current blog namesake Justin Verlander, who went 1-2 with teammate Gerrit Cole in wins by AL pitchers (21 and 20). Joining him is a pre-Tigers uniform card of 3B Dean Palmer, a 1999 Fleer Tradition Warning Track parallel. That means the base card's foil (including the note that Detroit signed him) along with the insert's logo are red instead of gold.

And the Michigan stuff all fit nicely into one scan as well. I added to my small but growing Caris LeVert collection with a shiny 2019-20 Panini Illusions base--an easy snag from the dime box. He's joined in the top row by a pair of Michigan Football Devins from the past decade (we had a few!): LB (and birthday boy!) Bush from 2020 Panini Playbook (my first from that set) and WR Funchess out of 2018 Panini Certified. Side note: Funch recently caught a record-setting "pass" of a football dropped 750 feet from a helicopter, so he's got that going for him.

Three of the next four guys played for the '97-'98 national champs so I'll cover them all at once. Griese's card is a '99 Collector's Edge Fury Gold Ingot parallel, which you'd be able to tell better if the shiny "Gold Ingot" logo near the bottom-right of the photo didn't look like golden static. Heisman winner Woodson makes two appearances by way of 2020 Panini Playoff and 2021 Score, and I love that the latter included a vet like him. And lastly, the A-Train's back in diminutive form thanks to a 2004 Bazooka Mini--a little card that bolsters a big collection of mine.

And to finish things off we segue nicely to our last player of the day, another RB: transfer RB Thomas Rawls. In keeping with my collecting rules, I'll collect any cards of players who transferred in and out of Ann Arbor as long as they aren't depicted with a college team other than Michigan. That wasn't even an issue here with two pro uni inserts: 2017 Panini Classics Record Breakers and 2017 Panini Unparalleled Perfect Pairs. The former discusses a team record Rawls set for rushing yards in a playoff game: 161 in their 2016-2017 wild card tilt against the hapless Lions. Meanwhile, the latter pair is less than "perfect" since both players would be gone from the team after 2017, with Lacy out of the league and Rawls playing just one more season himself. It's a cool looking shiny card, though!

So, yeah, not much to show off or brag about, but I had fun digging through boxes, and the money I saved can always be available the next time my favorite seller has a blowout sale.

More posts to come soon as I continue to try to catch up on cards in-hand and chilling on my desk, plus stuff that's still due to arrive!

TCDB trade roundup: c2cigars, deadhead11, and Mjprigge

I had a pretty busy couple weeks in terms of card stuff that feels like it included everything but blogging. Lots of logging/scanning, going to a show, and proposing, sending and receiving some TCDB trades.

Speaking of the latter, I've been fortunate enough to have three envelopes show up recently thanks to that site (with at least one more on the way!), so I thought it would be fun to do a second (I believe?) TCDB trade roundup. Here's a quick look at what I received:

First up was either a PIF (pay it forward) or RAK (random act of kindness) from C2Cigars, a.k.a. Chuck. If his name sounds familiar to you, that's because I was able to meet up with him and Paul at a show in Paul's neck of the woods late in 2019. Continuing the spirit of a thread that's now more than four years old and 2500+ posts strong, Chuck sent me the following nine cards out of the blue:

The first two are 2021 Donruss base issues of Tigers teammates Miggy and the Candyman. I think the design could have used less white and more color, but it's cool having a couple more 2021 Tigers in my collection since I don't buy packs or anything. Candelario's lacked the power he showed off last year, but it's fun to see Cabrera chasing a couple milestones as his career winds down.

Besides those I was treated to a seven-spot of '21 Heritage Tigers. Topps is running back the '72 design this year, and it features a solid design, though I still prefer action shots to this posed stuff. But it does hit some classic notes nicely, so there's that. Miggy and Candelario are also featured here, along with pitchers Tyler Alexander, Gregory Soto, and Spencer Turnbull. Also in the picture is slugger C.J. Cron, who I was disappointed to see gone after his powerful start to the 2020 season was interrupted by injury. And then there's my favorite of the bunch: a throwback to the multiplayer RCs of yesteryear. This one includes a trio of pitching prospects: the recently DFAed Beau Burrows, who lost his lunch on the mound and then his spot on the team; Kyle Funkhouser, who's been quite good out of the 'pen; and Rony Garcia, whom Detroit snagged from the Yankees in the 2019 Rule 5 draft.

I also want to give extra credit to Chuck as Alexander's card is a short print, one of three Tigers in the high numbers (including Joe Jimenez and JaCoby Jones).

And why not include the backs for completeness?

It was very cool of him to send these my way and fortunately for me I'd already gathered a few items for him before supplementing them with a few more at last week's show (recap coming soon-ish). I may also follow his lead and pick a random TCDBer to send a PIF to so the fun continues.

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Next up is a deal I completed with John from Minnesota who goes by deadhead11 (with an assist from Paul!). A fan of Saints and Shaq, among others, John DMed me asking about a couple New Orleans hits I scored on the cheap from my monthly show, wondering if we could work out a deal around them. Hey, I'm happy to take a look, at least.

We batted the proposal back and forth a few times, and thanks to a few cards Paul was generous enough to PWE to him on my behalf, we agreed on a deal that brought me some cool Michigan Football stuff, including a pair of new autographs:

The first nine include vets like WR Derrick Alexander ('99 Finest), OT John "Jumbo" Elliott ('94 Stadium Club), insane Viking C Steve Everitt ('95 Pacific), and QB Elvis Grbac ('99 Pacific). Rookie year cards comprise transfer TE Devin Asiasi (2020 Playoff RC), beastly DL/LB Brandon Graham (2010 Playoff Contenders Rookie of the Year Contenders insert), transfer QB Ryan Mallett (2011 Finest RC), LB Jonas Mouton (2011 Rookies & Stars Longevity Silver parallel /249), and transfer QB Jack Rudock (2016 Panini Prizm RC). I loved getting some of the lesser seen vets like the two OL, and the rookies were helpful with my project where I'm chasing those, including guys who transferred out (Asiasi and Mallett), and new additions like Rudock. I appear to be just one first-year shy for the two quarterbacks here, while I own just a pair of Asiasis.

Before we get to the autographs there's one more base to admire, with former #1 Alexander getting the die-cut/horizontal treatment courtesy of 2001 Pacific Crown Royale. How could I not try to swing that as part of the deal?

But my real prizes were a pair of Thomas Rawls autographs (speaking of transfers!). John had one listed and came up with another one, which was a nice bonus for me. The Wolverines/CMU Chippewas RB can be seen here on a pair of signatures from 2016 Panini products: Infinity's Infinite Ink (/188) and Prestige. Both are great in their own right with the card on the left being thick, shiny, and numbered, and the other showing off that full bleed Prestige look that I tend to appreciate.

These are my first two solo autographs of Rawls to go along with a relic, auto/relic, and plate.

I was very happy with my experience dealing with John and would highly recommend him thanks to his patience and willingness to work out a fair deal.

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And finally, hot out of the mailbox today, is the result of a deal with TCDBer/Tweep Matt of Wisconsin, whom many of you know as Mjprigge on the former and @mjpmke on the latter. The author/librarian/Brewers fan tweeted that he was hoping to try to put together the fun debut of Upper Deck's SPx from 1996. I almost immediately asked him to send me a wantlist since I had a few I was happy to give up. We ended up matching up for five that he needed, plus a college football autograph I'd grabbed at a past show. In return, I was happy to get the following in an easily worked out PWE trade:

I think I was the most excited about card #1 here since it's the oldest: a '69 Topps Deckle Edge of former Tigers great Willie Horton. Bulking up his collection is something I've been trying to focus on recently so scoring something like that in a deal is great.

The next four cards represent three of his teammates that combined to help the Tigers win the '68 Series. Mickey Stanley is seen here on his '73 Topps base, on which someone noted in pen that the Gold Glove CF that year also played some SS, which is a bit of an understatement. Detroit manager Mayo Smith made the ballsy call to move Stanley to the all important infield spot for the World Series, replacing all glove/no-bat SS Ray Oyler while fitting OFs Horton, Al Kaline, and Jim Northrup, into the lineup as well. Man did that pay off!

The aforementioned Northrop comes up next on his '74 Topps base, and he took advantage of his '68 Series at-bats with a pair of homers and 8 RBI in the win.

Then awesome story and PH great Gates Brown joins Stanley's second appearance out of 1976 SSPC, with that product continuing to be the gift that keeps on giving. Brown chipped in 6 HR during the title-winning season, with a few coming in clutch situations off the bench.

Gates won a second ring as a coach with the Tigers in '84, a team that included former White Sox OF Chet Lemon, who came to Detroit in a swap that sent Steve Kemp to the Windy City in 1981, the year the card you see above was made by Topps . I'd say that deal worked out just fine for the good guys as Lemon put up eight solid-to-excellent campaigns in nine seasons in Motown, including a career-high 6.2 bWAR (matching the previous year) during that magical '84 season.

Last up in this scan is another ring winner, just one that didn't accomplish the feat with Detroit. I can't go that many posts on TMV without at least one Verlander, and here you can see the 2017 champ on a 2020 Topps League Leaders subset issue, which mentions his 21 wins to top the AL in 2019; teammate Gerrit Cole came in second with 20. Alas for the cheatin' Astros, they couldn't repeat the magic of 2017 for some reason, and fell to the Nats.

We're not quite done here, yet, though, because there's one more item remaining. Toymaker LJN co-produced these oversized oddballs, like Larkin's here, with Topps in 1989, and while the front looks normal enough, the back is definitely enough to throw most people for a loop. You could "play" audio clips on the top half of the back with a special record player that was sold separately (wasn't everything, back then?) making them a fun novelty, though obviously they never caught on.

Big thanks to Matt, who's a fun Twitter follow and excellent TCDBer, for another easy deal, our second (with the other happening about a year ago). I love helping people tackle sets when I can, and getting some very cool cards from a rock solid trade partner is just gravy.

At some point in the near future I'll have another recap of a deal made on the site with a familiar (at least to me) trader, but first I'll be showing off a couple other trade packages plus going over the results of my latest monthly show.

6/4/21 card show report: That's Bait

As much fun as I had at last month's show where I made good use of my favorite seller's $1 box, my enjoyment and loot were both doubled yesterday. How do you top a take-home like that? Cut prices in half! All of his cards that were previously a buck were now $0.50, and friends, I went nuts. The box you see above is the haul I brought home: 124 $0.50 cards and 130 dimes ($75, for those of you that are as math-challenged as I am). A few of the dimes went towards my collections, I found a ton of great stuff for upcoming trade packages, and I landed a ridiculous amount of general trade bait figuring I'd either find takers here or throw them on TCDB. At those prices I was much less likely to toss something back in the boxes, though I did tend to ignore the minors/low-end college hits. I grabbed so many cards thinking "This is only $0.50?!"

So have a quick look at my personal dime pickups and then settle in for a trade baitapalooza!

Just a reminder: almost everything here cost me a dime. Gwynn's first card is from the pre-Chronicles/Optic combo product 1998 Donruss Collections and is a chromed-out version of his Leaf base from that year. Flagship Donruss, Elite, and Preferred could also be found in those packs. Speaking of Donruss, I also found Mr. Padre's base from last year's product, at least the one that uses his more common name instead of an "Anthony" variation.

My lone personal pickup from the $0.50 was the '96 Studio Bronze Press Proof of Cal, and I was pretty excited to nab that parallel, one of "just" 2000 copies made! The foil's a bit messed up on the back but that doesn't bother me as I'm a huge fan of that year's design, and the product in general. To that I added a 2019 A&G Ginter Greats insert and 2020 Donruss base (I already had the variation of this one) for a dime each.

I've mentioned him enough here for all of you to know that I love collecting HOF former Wolverine George Sisler, and I snagged the 1999 UD Century Legends card you see above out of the dime box because I wasn't sure if I had it. As it turns out I didn't because it's actually an NNO (no number on the back) version with a Washington logo on something that looks like a circular sticker where the number would be:

Finally, on the basketball front I couldn't ignore a new Jamal Crawford insert for a dime. It's from 2012-13 Panini Prestige's Bonus Shots Gold parallel set and is numbered /249, which coincidentally seems like the number of years he played in the league!

I had even better luck when it came to football dimes, especially on the rookie card front. Card #1 is my first of TE Devin Asiasi, who played one season in Ann Arbor and then transferred back home to UCLA. He joins C Cesar Ruiz (RC #2) and LB Josh Uche (also #2, plus a Michigan uni!) out of 2020 Donruss. I was also very happy to find my third first-year of CB Jourdan Lewis, this one out of 2017 Playoff.

On the insert side of things, I believe the two Thomas Rawls parallels were pretty close together, if not back-to-back. The first is a 2016 Panini Sacrifice Die-Cut and is numbered /199 up front (and, yes, die-cut) while the other is an unnumbered Blue Press Proof from the following year's Donruss. Speaking of transfers, he also departed the Wolverines for his senior season, going up to Central Michigan before appearing in parts of four NFL campaigns.

One of my favorite recent guys, Denard Robinson, overlapped with Rawls' college career for a pair of seasons, and there was no way I was going to ignore his 2016 Prestige Xtra Points Green parallel you see above, because chances are good that if I didn't need it, Jeff would.

And then we have two more items of star WRs bookending Uche's RC. First up is a sweet Amani Toomer that isn't an insert but might as well be with its stylin' foil at the bottom. That's his 1996 Press Pass Paydirt base. On the other side is even more gold, specifically a Gold Medallion parallel of former #1 Derrick Alexander's '95 Ultra 2nd Year Standouts. I already had the regular version of that so I'm glad to have finished off the pair.

That was a pretty nice take-home for me, but obviously I'm even more excited about the cards I've already sorted into piles for future trade packages, plus this bonanza that I'm geeked to offer today.

Briefly, if you see anything that interests you, please leave a comment here, shoot me an email, or hit me up on Twitter, then I'll see about working something out with you. I'm being up front in stating that these cost me $0.50, so it's not like I'm gonna ask an arm and a leg. If you're already a common trade partner of mine, I may already have a stack going for you and will be happy to add to it. If we haven't dealt before I'll probably want to come up with a deal with you first.

Also, if anyone needs details on one or more of these (e.g. name, team, serial numbering, etc.), please let me know!

Baseball and football dimes. I leaned towards numbered stuff and parallels since those tend to be good items to have for TCDB deals. I don't know why most of the baseball ones were Twins, but maybe a Minnesota collector will want them!

Vertical baseball autos, auto/relics, and relics. (The Inscribed Overbay is actually a $1 card from last time, but I figured I might as well include it here.) A bunch of these (and the rest that you'll see) are also numbered.

Horizontal baseball autos, auto/relic, and relics. Beltre and Johnson hits for $0.50? Sign me up!

I even grabbed a few basketball autos (and one relic) to diversify my portfolio, as it were!

It wasn't on purpose, but football definitely overtook baseball in volume. Here's all the vertical autos and relics. Again, lots of numbered stuff.

And lastly, here's the horizontal football autos and relics.

I'm hoping at least a few of these result in deals here but if not I'll eventually get them added to TCDB and see what I can get done over there.

Once again I had a blast at a show, my second in as many months since it became possible to get back to them, and I'm already excited about the next one!

I believe my next post will cover the Facebook purchase I've teased a few times now, so stay tuned for that. While you're waiting, let's get trading!

2019 trade package #36: Sport Card Collectors

As I mentioned yesterday I had a terrific Christmas, and now I'm finally back to get started on thanking people for some especially generous Christmas cards!

Today I'm celebrating envelope #20 from a particular trader, one who first sent me cards about three years ago.  Back in January of 2017, Matt of Sport Card Collectors became one of my new trade partners after claiming some giveaway lots I'd done a couple months earlier, and then he was nice enough to send a Miggy relic my way.

From there it was a parade of PWEs stuffed with Tigers and many new additions to my Griffey collection (a PC we happen to share) among others, until earlier this month when he let me know I had something a bit more substantial heading for my mailbox.  Dude wasn't kidding--this thing was packed with great content that hit the collections I just mentioned, then went all Santa Claus on my Michigan Football PC!

Without further ado, here's the contents of a package fit to be found under the nicest tree:

First up is the Tigers content.  Scherzer is a Diamond Kings subset card from 2019 Donruss that takes me back to some fun 80s designs.  Pitching prospect Spencer Turnbull and two of the Verlanders are from this year's Topps Walmart Holiday product, and Turnbull's card plus the JV below are the Metallic version where the white-ish decorations are a bit raised and glittery.  Verlander also pops up on a 2017 Topps insert called Bowman Then & Now.  Why was it inserted into Topps, then?  I dunno, but it reminds me that I should try to find his '05 Bowman RC at some point.  Last up is a pair-a Cabrera:  a 2015 Heritage Now and Then insert highlighting his 400th HR hit in 2015, and 2019 Topps Historic Through-Lines insert pairing him up with Mr. Tiger himself, Al Kaline, who also won a batting title.  Miggy crushed #400 on 5/16/2015, and has gone off for 77 more since, but is still short of the big milestone due to injury and decline.  His pace is still 31 bombs per 162 games played over the past three years, though, so I see him getting there within the next couple seasons.

Here's a group of Griffey cards that could have easily been another PWE from Matt, but I'm glad they were included here.  Only two (card #2, '08 UD, and the second horizontal issue, UD Masterpieces from the same year) were dupes, so I got a nice chunk of cardboard for his collection.  The portrait ones are from 2008 SP Authentic (love that swing!), 2016 Topps Tribute to the Kid, and 2017 Topps Fire.  The Tribute card is my 13th of the set so it was nice making more progress here.  Meanwhile, the landscapers are from 2000 Upper Deck Victory's Junior Circuit subset (my fifth of that group) and 2008 Upper Deck X's Xponential 2 variation (I already had the "regular' version).  These look fantastic and the red & white cards are very season-appropriate.  I now have a crazy 898 Griffeys, so he's catching up on Cal Jr. a bit.

Now with the bowl game coming up, let's switch to Michigan Football content.  There's a pretty nice maize & blue theme going on here with inserts of Adrian Arrington, Devin Funchess, and Jourdan Lewis in their college unis.  The latter is just my fourth of the talented DB, a Blue Back parallel #d 174/175, and as you might imagine, some of the features on the back are done up in (light) blue.  GOAT QB Tom Brady also gets in on the action with a Blue parallel of his 2019 Absolute base card.  Looks pretty nice to me!

Now here's where things take a turn for the insanely generous.  Everything you've seen so far could have been split up into a few PWEs, but not this bounty:

And this isn't even everything!  More on that in a minute, we'll look at this bunch first.

When Matt asked me for a list of guys I collected, I in no way expected eye-popping hits like what you see above.  Like PC guy Jason Avant on a 2006 Absolute jersey/ball/jersey card.  Or WR Amara Darboh starring on an autographed issue with a sick Seattle patch, hit #31 of his 42 cards(!).  PC leader Chad Henne (129 hits) gets a nice boost with two rookie-year jerseys ('08 Topps Rookie Progression and Upper Deck) and a double swatch from 2010 Sweet Spot.  Bonus points for two of them being Michigan uni images and swatches!  Henne is nearing a milestone of his own as I now own 299 of his cards.  The guy Miami took #1 overall before selecting Henne, Jake Long, adds to his own crazy count with hit #83 thanks to a Gold (#234/350) version of the '08 jersey you just saw of Chad.

RB Thomas Rawls (who transferred out, but I still collect) is another guy whose name I recall mentioning to Matt, which ended up being a good idea since he included my first auto of Rawls (3rd hit), a Capstones card from 2017 Panini Vertex (#63/99) that comes with four nice Seahawks swatches.  And last up in this group we have former highly-rated CB recruit Donovan Warren on one of his few issues, a 2010 SAGE HIT Silver auto.  Once again I love the #collegecontent.

Now we'll flip things a bit and look at four more(!) relics to round out the package.  Underachieving All-Star and WR Ronald Bellamy pops up for a rare appearance in what's just his 6th hit (and first relic) in my collection, a swatch from the East-West college all-star game for seniors/upcoming draftees.  It's not 100% a college uni card but he is wearing the most iconic helmet in the sport so that's a big plus.  Speaking of WRs, Matt sent me lucky hit #13 of the oft-injured Devin Funchess, a 2015 Topps Valor Courage patch, with just a hint of Panthers teal (or whatever you call it).  I believe the different versions correspond to the numbering, and this one is #17/50.

Last up today is another blog favorite, former QB Denard Robinson.  A PC I got over the 100-card mark not long ago, he gets two new hits for a total of 46 as he remains a popular passenger of trade envelopes and a target of my purchases too.  On the left is a large Jags swatch out of 2013 Panini Momentum (#004/299), and to the right is a Topps Strata offering from the same year, a Gold Patch relic (#39/90).  This one has less patchiness than the Funchess but I know such swatches happen from time to time, and I'm just happy to see more new Shoelaces I get to keep.

This incredibly generous mailer from Matt jumps my football hits PC all the way up to 1443 items, and while it's extremely unlikely I'll finish the year with 1500, that milestone is tantalizingly close, and I may pass it early next year.

Thanks again for a wonderful Christmas surprise, Matt, and I look forward to trading with you more in 2020!  I'll be back at it soon chasing down some Griffeys and Giants for you, and with any luck, some Rodney Hamptons and Kerry Collins stuff too!